Film Art

Film is an art form with a language and an aesthetic all its own. Since 1979, David Bordwell and Kristin Thompson’s Film Art has been the best-selling and most widely respected introduction to the analysis of cinema.

Taking a skills-centered approach supported by examples from many periods and countries, the authors help students develop a core set of analytical skills that will enrich their understanding of any film, in any genre. In-depth examples deepen students’ appreciation for how creative choices by filmmakers affect what viewers experience and how they respond.

This book does a great job of explaining how narrative choices in filmmaking are actually formal choices, which was quite a revelation for me. This book is geared toward a reader that has a firm understanding of the relationship between form and content. A reader that is not comfortable with these abstract concepts may find it difficult to understand what the authors are saying and how they are categorizing the series of creative choices a filmmaker makes.